Don't disturb the sorcerer's scientific research

Chapter 134 Why Did You Provoke Jia Xiu?
Compared to the bizarre and unusual competition designs of the previous three rounds, this round, handled by Vita Sage Academy, was much more normal.

There were no hellhounds, no undead, no strange phantoms; it was just answering questions.

All 150 contestants stood in their designated positions on the stage, with a thick magic book on the table in front of them, containing the questions they needed to answer.

They were completely dancing in Jia Xiu's comfort zone.

However, in order to enhance the viewing experience and make those who buy tickets to watch the quiz feel that it's worth the price, Vita Sage Academy has put a lot of thought into the specific rules.

The competition does not require everyone to finish the entire book within a set time.

The Magic Book is a question bank containing a large number of questions, with different initial scores assigned according to difficulty. After the competition starts, the scores will change. For each person who submits a correct answer, the score will decrease by one point, down to a minimum of one point.

Conversely, submitting an incorrect answer will earn one point, while submitting the wrong answer will deduct one point, thus preventing the intentional submission of incorrect answers to artificially inflate the score for a particular question.

While the competition is underway, the real-time status of all questions in the question bank, including how many people have completed the questions, how many have failed, how many are currently solving the questions, and the ranking of scores will also be updated in real time.

Throughout the arena, numerous surveillance cameras will roam, occasionally giving a close-up of a particular player. At this point, the two commentators and a special guest commentator, a professor from the Vita Sage Academy, will begin to comment on the player in the close-up.

He commented on everything from his behavior and facial expressions to how well he was progressing with the problem he was solving.

In this way, contestants not only have to know how to answer questions, but also have to think about strategies for choosing questions and make adjustments at any time according to the development of the competition, making a not-so-intense event seem somewhat intense.

In addition, the commentary on the contestants' answers was accompanied by close-up shots of their faces, as if they were demons.

It has to be said that the people at Weta Workshop have a knack for making variety shows.

The point is that regardless of whether the audience understands the questions or not, they can all find enjoyment in joining in the fun.

Jia Xiu thought that if this thing were pre-recorded, they could probably edit out some feuds and storylines by editing close-ups of the contestants' expressions, which would be very entertaining.

Many variety shows he's watched do this.

Even contestants with no prior grudges were fabricated and forced into conflict through editing...

After figuring out the rules for this round, Jia Xiubi was more relaxed than when he arrived.

Nobody knows how to solve problems better than him!

Although he hadn't seen the question bank yet, he was still very confident. After all, this was a competition that would select one hundred people to pass, and the difficulty level was definitely at the level that ordinary spellcaster academy students could solve.

That is, Jia Xiu's ability to do things quickly and accurately.

As for Mia, if the question bank has a high proportion of math-related questions, then no one here can beat her. She will demonstrate what it means to solve math problems at the fastest speed.

If it's all about pure magic, her abilities are quite good too.

As for Ram, I believe Ram will always find a way.

"Now, we will begin displaying the question bank," said the competition organizer from Vita Sage Academy. "For the next ten minutes, you can view all the questions in the question bank and plan which questions you want to choose. During this time, communication and any form of writing on paper are prohibited. You can only work out the solutions in your mind. If you violate the rules, you will be disqualified immediately."

As soon as he finished speaking, the books in front of each contestant were unsealed.

Three illusion projections were projected onto the sides and center of the stage. The side projections showed the selection status of the question bank, and the projections displayed the numbers of all the questions. If someone answered a question correctly, a green mark would appear next to the number; if someone answered incorrectly, a red mark would appear; and if someone was answering a question, a blue mark would appear.

The other side shows the real-time rankings, which are initially based on the total scores from the first three rounds.

Jia Xiu was prominently ranked first.

The projector in the middle is naturally used to display close-ups of the contestants; its most prominent position is responsible for providing the best program effect.

Every contestant's frantic struggle when they couldn't solve a problem was precisely projected here, displayed to the thousands of audience members on site, as well as countless viewers watching the remote broadcast from various colleges.

Furthermore, although the contestants cannot communicate with each other, the audience can freely cheer and jeer.

What if someone makes an obvious and stupid mistake?

Oh hoo.

While simultaneously embarrassing themselves in front of the five colleges, the audience burst into laughter again during the narrator's introduction.

All I can do is wish that unlucky guy can have a good attitude.

Jia Xiu opened the question bank.

The question bank consists entirely of general magic knowledge questions, which are required for all professions and schools of magic, thus minimizing the influence of professions and schools of magic.

This is also what Jia Xiu is most proficient in. Apart from vampire magic, he has not specifically studied the specific knowledge of any particular school of thought. He spends most of his time on general knowledge and honing his basic skills.

The subject of Magical General Knowledge is like Advanced Mathematics in STEM fields. As long as you have a solid foundation in mathematics and physics, it will be much easier to learn other more specialized knowledge within your major later on, and it will also be much easier to switch to other majors.

All the questions in the question bank are divided into four levels.

The lowest difficulty level is 10 points for the initial questions, which is roughly the same level of difficulty as the exercises in the textbook.

For questions at this level, Jia Xiu doesn't even need to read the entire question stem or the first two sentences; he can immediately recall what the rest of the question entails.

There are so many question types; I practiced them all until I was extremely familiar with them during my preparation.

The second level is 100 points, and the difficulty is roughly equivalent to the last few big questions in an exam.

It can be done, but it will take more time.

Jia Xiu estimated that it was hard to say whether making one 100-point answer or making ten 10-point answers was more efficient.

The third tier, with a score of 1000, has extremely tricky questions.

Jia Xiu glanced at it briefly and couldn't immediately figure out how to solve the problem.

Given the complexity of the problem, he estimated that even if he knew how to solve it, the answer would take several pages.

So this is actually prepared for "all-in poker enthusiasts" with some skill.

Jia Xiu made a guess.

This is designed for contestants who, during the actual competition, completely disregard other questions and directly gamble on being able to answer a question worth 1000 points.

If you can answer, you'll get a high ranking and pass; if you can't answer, you'll be the biggest clown.

If you can barely understand the questions worth 1,000 points, then the questions worth 10,000 points are simply outrageous.

At the very end of the entire question bank, the organizers even included three questions worth 10,000 points each.

After taking a closer look, Jia Xiu found it all quite amusing.

Those three are all conjectures that have not yet been fully proven. If they could be proven, a first-tier paper would be ready.

He couldn't quite understand what the organizers were thinking.

What kind of person could create this thing in just a few hours of competition?

That's why we set it to 10,000 points, right? Because it doesn't matter what the exact number is.

It's like the gold brick in the "Grab a Gold Brick with One Hand" event.

In name, whoever can pick it up can take it.

In fact, there was absolutely no option in the plan that anyone could take it away from.

It mainly serves as a gimmick.

When Jia Xiu looked at these three conjectures, he couldn't even understand the problem statement, let alone the proof.

Of the three, I could barely understand one.

To prove that "within the same elemental magic array, the sum of the excited states of the magic power contained in the rune nodes is always less than the sum of the excited states of the magic power contained in the rune nodes..."

It sounds like a tongue twister.

If this can be proven true, then in the future, when creating elemental magic arrays, it will be possible to determine the exact method directly through calculation, thus reducing the need for experimentation.

His ability to understand this stems from his mastery of runes, which far surpasses his level of spellcasting.

If it weren't for the competition, we might actually be able to try and prove this hypothesis.

Although he understood it, Jia Xiu didn't intend to actually fight this thing to the death in the competition.

He is not stupid.

Since there was no ranking pressure and all that was needed was to advance, Jia Xiu thought for a moment and decided to use the most "economical and practical" way to get through this round.

Practice the 10-point safety questions like crazy.

For Jia Xiu, doing these problems doesn't require much brainpower; it's fast and accurate.

Even if you make a few mistakes, it's okay. As long as you do enough, making a few mistakes is perfectly acceptable and won't affect your advancement.

You should be able to advance easily by scoring three or four hundred points.

It's just a matter of a few dozen questions; for him, that level of intensity is considered healthy.

Ten minutes passed quickly.

"Contestants, you may now begin answering the questions. You have a total of three hours."

As soon as the person in charge announced the start, all the contestants immediately sprang into action.

"Alright, the competition is officially starting. We see that the projection screen first shows Jaxiu, the sorcerer from the Saint Delos Spellcaster Academy, who ranked first in the total score of the first three rounds. He has chosen the 10-point question number 1, which is to briefly describe the repulsion effect when arranging runes. Please welcome our guest teacher to introduce this question to us."

The match had just begun, and the commentator's tone was quite relaxed.

Commentators can't always present every match with a high level of passion. Besides, even if they could be passionate, three hours of continuous passion would burn out their energy.

Therefore, the dwarf commentator chose a commentary style that better matched the overall tone of the event, and started chatting directly with the guests.

The professor, who was a guest speaker, calmly explained, "This rune repulsion effect is a very basic one..."

He wasn't even able to finish his first sentence before the dwarf interrupted him.

It wasn't that the dwarfs were impolite; it was just that Jia Xiu acted too quickly. "Submitted! Jia Xiu has submitted his first question, and also the first submission of the entire competition. The judge's result is... correct. Congratulations to him for getting his first 10 points. The other contestants who also chose this question are in for a rough time."

As he said, the other contestants who also chose number 1 shook their heads helplessly, now their 10 points had become 9.

I should have known better than to choose such a basic question.

"Okay, Jia Xiu will now begin answering question number 2. The question is to prove the finiteness theorem for elemental reactions. We would like to ask... He submitted it, he submitted it again!"

Before the professor could even begin to introduce the guest, Jia Xiu had already achieved a "double kill."

The dwarf commentator was also taken aback; this was incredibly fast.

Does he not need to use his brain to solve these kinds of problems?
In the two questions just now, I didn't see Jia Xiu think at all. He chose the question, wrote the answer, and submitted it without pausing in between.

It was as if the answer was already imprinted in his mind.

In fact, the answers were indeed "imprinted" in Jia Xiu's mind; these were questions that were directly quoted in the textbook.

In Jia Xiu's education, these kinds of questions were always called "easy points".

Anyone who loses points on this type of question should expect a severe scolding from the teacher.

In that brief moment of hesitation during the explanation, Jia Xiu casually submitted the third question as well.

For the first few minutes, the close-up shots focused on Jia Xiu without ever leaving him.

It seems like he's not on the same wavelength as the other contestants.

Even viewers who knew nothing about magic realized how powerful Jia Xiu was.

This is not quite the same as the rumors.

In the rumors, Jia Xiu has always been portrayed as a "master of opportunism".

Not a true master.

Because he used some rather fancy and strange methods in the first three rounds.

Viewers inevitably have doubts about his actual abilities.

There are also rumors that Jacob is the strongest in terms of raw power, or that Justus is the strongest in terms of raw power.

Now everyone realizes that the rumors were wrong!

All the other contestants present also understood Jia Xiu's answering strategy.

There's simply no strategy.

It doesn't discriminate based on question type.

Start with question number 1 and work your way down like a bulldozer, doing them in order.

Once I understood, I immediately switched to a different question and looked for one I knew how to do from the list of questions.

"Thousands of troops and horses avoid Jia Xiu."

For more than half of the first hour of the match, the projected image was focused on Jia Xiu.

Jia Xiu also delivered a rather outrageous performance in that hour.

He submitted a total of 44 questions, taking a little over a minute per question on average. What's even more infuriating is that he got them all right, scoring 421 points. He was the first to answer more than 30 of the submitted questions correctly.

The whole process is just like a quiz machine.

Jia Xiu raised his head and stretched his stiff neck.

He didn't count how many questions he had answered, so he looked at the rankings projected on the side of the stage.

With 421 points, he is in first place, far ahead of the competition.

The second place is only around 200.

Jia Xiu's gaze swept downwards.

Mia scored 155 points, which is quite high in the rankings. Ram scored 96 points, which is a bit low, but still within the range for advancement.

He kept searching until he found the last person on the qualifying list, the 100th person.

Only 60 points.

Alright, you can rest for the remaining two hours.

The next question wouldn't eliminate him even if he didn't answer it. With his goal for this round achieved, Jia Xiu sat down on the ground to rest and ponder the rune node conjecture worth 10,000 points.

Whether or not I prove myself in the competition is not important; I just want to challenge myself with a difficult problem.

Moreover, while pondering this question, he could clearly feel that the effect of Inspiration had been activated.

Intelligence is on the rise.

My thinking has become much more agile. Clues that were previously impossible to grasp are now clear and obvious, and inspiration for finding a starting point keeps emerging. Although not every approach is correct, I can quickly correct any mistakes I discover.

It seems that a way to prove it is about to be found.

This feels great.

how to say.

A feeling of "Damn! I'm so smart!" of surprise.

Just then, a chorus of boos erupted from the audience, interrupting Jia Xiu's thoughts.

Although spectators are allowed to boo, there has been no large-scale noise since the start of the match, until now.

Jia Xiu was puzzled.

The boos were mixed with shouts from some people.

"Why are you dazed?"

"Passive play!"

"Isn't it shameful that you only did 10 points worth of questions?"

"I thought you were really capable..."

Hearing these sarcastic remarks, Jia Xiu understood that his thoughtful and conjecturing manner was being mistaken for daydreaming.

What's there to mock?
He had enough points to advance, but they wouldn't let him rest.

Suddenly, the boos turned into cheers.

Jia Xiu turned to look at the projection in the center of the stage, and realized that the image was being shown to Jacob.

"Jacob, currently ranked second, is about to choose a new question. What will he choose? Oh my god! He chose a question worth 1,000 points! He's the first contestant in this competition to choose a question worth 1,000 points!"

The audience immediately erupted in even louder cheers.

"Number one in terms of hard power!"

“That’s wonderful, Holy Son.”

"Only those who dare to take on difficult challenges are truly strong."

Then the scene suddenly cuts back to Jia Xiu, who is looking back at the projection.

The audience booed again.

"Are you stunned?!"

"Dare you try a high-scoring question?"

Jia Xiu was shocked. It turned out that Vita Sage Academy was even better at making variety shows than he had imagined, and they were actually stirring up trouble and putting people down on the spot.

He fueled the fire of the audience, and Rajakob trampled on him.

Do your family know you're trying to gain popularity this way?

Jia Xiu turned to look at the audience booing him, still not understanding why they were booing so enthusiastically.

It doesn't seem like they gambled.

Those who have gambled usually start cursing right now.

Just as I was wondering what was going on, the projection screen switched again, returning to Jacob, who was struggling to solve the thousand-point problem.

These audience members were like switches, sometimes booing deafeningly, sometimes cheering and applauding.

Jassi noticed that the intellectual boost from the Realm of Inspiration was still in effect.

The group that cheered the loudest and the group that had just been most excited about mocking the enemy were the same people.

Are these Jacob's fans?

So the mockery is because they stole their idol's number one spot?

Jia Xiu figured out what had happened.

He looked at Jacob, who was solving a problem.

There's nothing we can do about it. We weren't planning on competing for rankings this round, but the idol has to pay the price for the fans' actions.

Jia Xiu got up and stopped resting.

(End of this chapter)